05 October 2010

Formaggio

Formaggio is a Steubenville-style pizza shop near the South Campus Gateway. It is a take-out/delivery pizza shop with reasonable prices, befitting its collegiate location.

The first time I heard the nomenclature Steubenville-style pizza, I concocted a prejudice in my head that disallowed Steubenville its rightful place in pizza lore. While there are numerous sub-types of tomato pies that dot the American landscape claiming to be different from everybody else, most pizzas fit into neat little boxes. Steubenville pizza, however, is unique in that it is a medium-thick crust that is topped with cheese after it is baked.

Despite my prejudices, I'll have to say that Steubenville-style pizza is unlike other pizzas. Its closest relative might be the New England bakery pizza, a baked thin crust pizza topped with tomato sauce, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and served cold (it is available at Yellow Brick Pizza in Columbus, or any Italian restaurant in Rhode Island). Steubenville-style pizza is served hot, and the heat of the crust and sauce slowly melts the grated provolone cheese. Diners unwilling to experiment with the Steubenville style (called "fresh") can order their pizza "melted." Of course, I thought, "When in Rome..."

Pizzas come in regular and half sheet sizes. There are a few meatless specialty pizzas, including a white pizza and a veggie pizza.

The provolone cheese gives the pizza a sharper flavor. The crust is soft with a crisp exterior. The toppings, overall, were a little cheap and conservatively applied. Overall, the weakest part of the pizza was the finely chopped peppers and the canned mushrooms.

There is a coupon on the website that adds a free order of breadsticks to a $10 order. A generous portion of breadsticks is dusted with sesame seeds and served with a side of marinara sauce. Formaggio also offers cheese pizza slices fresh and melted for $1 for penny pinchers.

The prices at Formaggio, combined with the unique Steubenville pizza, make Formaggio worth sampling. If nothing else, you can tell your coworkers that you ate Steubenville-style pizza for lunch, and look at them in an incensed manner when they tell you that they've never heard of it before.